Fragments
by Rabid-Cheetah
Summary: The worlds of the MegaMan games have all come to an end...MMMMXMML crossover DISCONTINUED
1. How it began

fragments1.html Disclaimer: All of these characters (except for a few bit players) belong to Capcom. Not me.   
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IN THE YEAR 200X... 

It was on a Saturday that the world ended and began. In one of the largest malls in Tokyo, Protoman wove his way around the bustling halls, a look of distant concentration on his boyish face. The compact android was dressed casually in a T-shirt and jean shorts, as well as his trademark scarf and a pair of sunglasses that were, in fact, one half of the spying equipment he used to monitor Skull Castle for use in the unending war between Dr. Wily and Protoman's brother, MegaMan. 

On the other end, via the security cameras in the walls of Skull Castle, which Protoman had rigged remotely to his shades, Dr. Wily finished attaching a metal plate to a strange, dome-shaped machine with a computer monitor and keyboard embedded in its silver surface. As Protoman watched, the evil scientist booted up the computer and started to run some sort of diagnostic. At that moment, Bass, one of Wily's latest creations, entered from a door off to the left side, Treble at his heels. They stopped to watch for a minute or so. 

"What are you doing?" the black-armored robot asked. 

"Do you remember that diamondlike crystal that Met found last month?," Wily replied. 

"Yeah?" 

"Well, I ran a few tests on it, and discovered something most extraordinary: the cave it was found in was actually the focal point for several black holes in the same space. This crystal emerged from one of them, or perhaps more than one." 

Bass looked puzzled for a moment, then said, "A black hole in a cave? If my basic knowledge of astronomy serves me correctly, black holes are considerably larger than a red giant star, and most certainly way too large to fit inside a typical cave. Besides, all they do is suck stuff in. Nothing gets out." 

"Nothing on this side does," Wily amended. "However, in this case, we're on the other side of the black hole, where everything theoretically comes back out. This side is much, much smaller than the other end, similar to a cosmic funnel." 

"There's no evidence that any such thing even exists!" Bass replied. 

"There is now!" his creator retorted, then continued, "Now, the other end, where everything goes in, and with which we're most familiar, may be megamillions of light years away from the area where everything theoretically comes back out. Perhaps, even, in other realties. Other dimensions if you will. I'll spare you the technobabble and explain it as simply as I can: time is flowing at different rates in each one, possibly something to do with the theory of relativity. The histories in these other worlds may have developed the same way ours has-or will-but at a faster or slower speed than ours." 

"Yeah, but that doesn't explain what your weird machine is for," the black-armored robot said, sounding bored. Protoman, meanwhile, briefly wondered when Wily's lateral career move to astronomy had occurred. 

"I'm getting to that!" came the evil scientist's reply. "My theory is that this crystal arrived through the black hole or holes, as it has...unusual properties. So, after a bit of research, I've created this specialized teleport machine to utilize the crystal's properties to connect two universes together, each with time moving at different speeds, to determine which universes are habitable, and so forth. In other words" Dr. Wily smiled excitedly at this point, "I've created a time machine!" 

Bass stared at his master for a moment, a look of mild puzzlement on his face, then asked. "Annnd...what are you going to use it for?" 

"What else? To go into the future, steal as-of-yet uninvented technology, and bring it here. Since the world would have no defenses against such advanced technology, not even MegaMan could stop me!" Wily threw his head back and let loose a triumphant cackle. 

Bass watched a second more, then burst into laughter himself. But he wasn't joining in with Wily's triumph. 

"HAHAHAHAAA!! Aw geez! That's a good one, Wily! I almost believed you there for a second!" the black robot sighed. 

Wily went from victorious to enraged immediately. 

"You don't believe me?!" he demanded. 

"Of course not!" Bass replied, then hesitated, noticing the look on Wily's face. "You're serious, aren't you? Sorry, Doc, but I find your theories to be somewhat flawed, first and foremost that anything that enters the extreme gravitational forces of a black hole gets crushed like a soda can under an elephant's foot. How could that puny rock possibly survive such abuse? Unless that's another of it's 'unusual properties'." The last statement held quite a bit of sarcasm. 

"Look, I don't know everything about it, alright?" Dr. Wily exclaimed impatiently. "All I know is that the time machine was a complete success! I've run some experiments, and it works!" 

"Really?" Bass asked. "Lemme see." He strode over to the machine, studying the date Dr. Wily punched into the monitor: 21-something. Protoman couldn't see the rest. Apparently this was the date Dr. Wily was planning to steal technology from, and was first attempting to send back a beacon of sorts to make sure it was safe. 

"I haven't finished imputing all the safety protocols," Wily cautioned. "So be extremely careful!" 

"Only one hundred years?" Bass asked. "C'mon, where's your sense of adventure?" He typed another date; Protoman could see that it began with a 5, but Bass's arm blocked the rest of the view. 

Wily scurried over, scolding his creation for his behavior. 

Meanwhile, Protoman had come to a rest on a bench, pondering those dates. 21-something and 5-something else. He wondered if the world would even exist by either of those times. 

IN THE YEAR 21XX... 

The main division of the Repliforce Army marched down the streets of the evacuated city, heading toward the site of the latest Maverick uprising: the center of the city, at the playground. No matter how hard the Maverick Hunters worked at destroying Maverick Reploids, the civil war among the Reploids seemed endless. 

Things were looking bleak for the world these days: the Mavericks, led by Sigma, had decimated the human and non-Maverick populations severely. Every day was a matter of survival for all, and the last traces of optimism and hope were draining away. Despair had settled around the Earth like a shroud on a corpse. Even MegaMan X, the most skilled and effective of the Maverick Hunters, had attempted suicide twice in his lifetime already; both times, X's best friend Zero had had to talk him out of it. 

Now, however, a thin trickle of hope was seeping back into the world: the newly drafted Repliforce, numbering in the hundreds, had risen up to help the Hunters deal with the Maverick threat. With their combined efforts, the Mavericks would be suppressed once and for all, and life could begin anew. 

Or so the Colonel of the Repliforce hoped. If the Repliforce project failed, he thought, then the world was doomed. 

They were nearing the playground, and the Colonel stopped to take a look around. Dead children littered the area. A young boy's body was draped across the top of the slide, and his head lay at the bottom some five feet below. A little girl no more than four years old was laying across the top of the jungle gym, with her bloody entrails and limbs dangling below, and her wide-open eyes staring forever at the gravel beneath her. Another, slightly older girl's broken corpse lay nearby, her dead hands still clutching her toy bucket and shovel. The bodies of the children's parents were still sitting in the surrounding blood-stained benches; one dead mother still held the eviscerated corpse of her infant. 

Colonel gazed at the carnage, disgusted. To murder innocent people was bad enough, but worse still was to slaughter young children, who had yet to experience life. It was scenes like this that motivated the young commander to strive for the goal of eliminating all Mavericks with all he had. 

"Sir?" Lieutenant Signas spoke up. "We're detecting readings of Mavericks very close by." The unspoken message was that an ambush was waiting, and Colonel received it loud and clear. 

As did the General, the leader of the Repliforce, who was glaring hatefully at what lay before him, clenching his great fists with a sound like steel plates being slapped together. Then two-story Reploid raised his eyes forward and bellowed out, "All Mavericks present, come out and fight! Your ambush has been discovered! Come out and show yourselves, cowards!" 

Sure enough, several Mavericks emerged from their hiding places. 

"Cowards, are we?" one of them, a griffin, demanded. "We're not the ones kowtowing to the humans! If anyone's cowardly, it's the ones slaving under the hands of pitiful chunks of meat!" 

"As far as I'm concerned," the General replied evenly, "there is no greater show of cowardice and dishonor as attacking one that cannot fight back." He gestured to the playground-turned-graveyard. "If this is what the majority of the Maverick force is reduced to, then I am greatly disappointed!" 

These words apparently struck a nerve; suddenly, Mavericks were leaping at them from all sides, snarling and firing their weapons. Repliforce struck back with equal bravado. Beam sabers were drawn and swung, slicing air and metal. The General powered up his own weapons, and felled three Mavericks with one blow of his great fists. Plasma crackled the air. 

The Colonel was jumped from behind by a Reploid panther, whom he quickly dislodged with a blow to the torso with the handle of his saber. Yowling in pain, the Maverick fell off, and prepared to strike with her long claws...and was stopped in the act by the Colonel's saber punching through her chest to shred the vital components within. She collapsed in a heap, as dead as the children around her. 

That done, the Colonel turned his attention to the Maverick falcon that was giving Signas a tough time, wondering when it would all end... 

*** 

IN THE YEAR 53XX... 

Yuna watched as the endless blue of Terra's oceans sprawled beneath her, as she and her Servitor unit, Gaatz, flew toward the snow-coated Forbidden Island. Or, rather, Gaatz flew toward it, carrying Yuna. They were making their final patrol for the day, and would head in to rest and recharge. The female android could tell that the silver robotic dragon-bird that carried her was exhausted; his wings trembled, and his tail drooped slightly toward the tip. 

Yuna was about to tell him that it was time to rest, when she noticed a spot of color in the field of snow on the island below her. 

"Do you see that, Gaatz?" she asked. 

"Affirmative" was the reply. 

"Let's go check it out." 

The two swooped low, and landed near the strange object. Or, rather, the strange person. It was a Beta, also known as a "carbon" among Anthro Units, such as Yuna and Gaatz. The Betas were the inhabitants of Terra, alongside the older, robotic Anthro Units, the latter of which resided either underground, out of sight of the carbons, or in the paradisal Elysium in orbit around Terra. 

This Beta was a middle-aged female, with blonde hair and a care-worn face. Yuna pulled back an eyelid, and discovered that her bright green eyes were sluggish to respond to the sudden brightness, indicating that she was badly injured, and near death. Yuna felt a surge of pity for the unfortunate creature. The System which she once served would never have allowed for such an emotion, she reflected, and was, as always, glad she removed herself from it. The former Mother Unit of Terra made up her mind; she would do what she could to save this carbon. 

"Gaatz, go to the nearest island and find a Medic unit," Yuna instructed her Servitor. "I'm going to help save this carbon's life." 

No response. Yuna turned to face her servant. 

"I'll be fine! Go now! Hurry!" 

Reluctantly, Gaatz took to the air once more, and flew away over the ocean. Yuna watched until he was a silver speck on the horizon, then turned her attention back to the dying woman. 

The lips were an unhealthy shade of blue, and her hands were like frozen wax. Severe frostbite and advanced hypothermia. Yuna took the woman's hands in her own, and blew warm breath over the the wrists, where the veins were closest to the skin in an attempt to thaw the chilled blood in them. 

[Hurry up, Gaatz] she thought desperately 


	2. The End of the Worlds

fragments2.html 200X... 

Protoman leaned back against the bench, watching Dr. Wily and Bass argue over at Skull Castle. 

"Be careful!" the evil scientist scolded his creation. "I haven't gotten all the safety protocols installed yet! One hundred years is plenty for the first excursion! Now move aside!" He stomped forward, shoved Bass out of the way, and started to try and delete the unwanted data. As he did so, the black robot put his hand down onto the other side of the keyboard to catch his balance, just as Dr. Wily was reaching for the keys. A smear of text appeared on the screen. At the same time, Wily attempted to delete the erroneous input, but, being human, his fingers slid clumsily across the keys, adding to the mess that was already there. It was these two tiny slip-ups that destroyed the entire universe. 

As Protoman watched, the time machine suddenly came to life, jarred into activation by the combined blows of Wily's typing and Bass's stability-seeking hand. It accepted the flawed data, analyzed it, and tried without success to understand it. Unfortunately, perhaps due to the incomplete safety protocols, emergency shutdown never occurred, and the machine began to hum, then whine, then screech in protest as it began to overload. Dr. Wily and Bass had been watching the machine warily when it first began to hum, and now they backed away, terrified, as the thing started to glow ice-white. Thick tendrils of pure energy shot out of it like lightening, destroying everything it touched. The lab started to crumble, the walls cracking and the floor buckling. Robot and scientist went into full panic, trying desperately to seek shelter from the falling metal of the building. 

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING!" Wily screamed over the melee. 

"WHAT THE HE...!" Bass started to reply, but was cut off abruptly when a stray bolt of quantum energy struck him in his chest. The evil robot screamed in agony, his back arcing from the pain...then vanished, as though he had never existed. At this point, the wall Protoman's spy equipment had been hidden in collapsed, destroying the camera in the process. But that didn't matter. Protoman wasn't paying any more attention to the device anyway. Something more urgent had come up. 

The mall was disintegrating around him, the entire building rocking as though in a tremendous earthquake. Columns sliced themselves apart. Walls fell in, water sloshed out of the nearby fountain, the tiled floor fractured, and the same white lightning that Protoman saw at Skull Castle was leaping everywhere. People ran in all directions in panic, screaming in terror, only to be abruptly silenced when the lightning found them. 

Protoman, meanwhile, dropped to his knees and covered his head with his arms, as he was programmed to do in an earthquake. 

[Only, it's not exactly an earthquake,] he thought ruefully. [It's more like a timequake!] 

With his head turned to the side, Protoman caught a quick glimpse of the nearby arcade, and he could see it being slowly destroyed, like the rest of the building. Game machines smoldered, the screens on the video games blinking out as their power cords were severed. Rafters fell from the ceiling, the Skee-Ball tracks split open, and stuffed animal prizes were thrown from the shelves. The terrified android caught only a few seconds of the destruction, before the brilliant white glow of the quantum energy brightened to a painful luminosity, forcing him to close his aching eyes against it.... 

21XX... 

The battle between Repliforce and the Mavericks came to an unexpected halt when the ground beneath them began to tremble violently in a freak earthquake. Reploids on both sides struggled to maintain their footing, as the shaking grew in intensity, causing the graveled playground to shift precariously. The surrounding trees leaned in threateningly, and the nearby playground equipment twisted and distorted. The earth split apart beneath their feet. 

"Repliforce!" the General called out to his troops. "Halt all fighting, and retreat! We will regroup at headquarters!" At the same time, the leader of the Mavericks called out similar orders to his own troops. Both groups backed off, seeking safety from the falling trees and shifting ground. 

But all was to no avail. The earthquake worsened until it was impossible to stand up. Lieutenant Signas barely had time to acknowledge the sudden change in intensity, before he was flung to the ground, into the gravel. To his left, he could see the body of a young girl teetering on the edge of a crevice that had opened nearby. Signas' first impulse was to reach out and try to rescue her, even though he knew she had been dead for hours. Even so, he felt a pang of regret as the tiny corpse slid down the precipice, out of reach. 

The young lieutenant was then aware of a strange increase in the light level, and he turned his head upward and to the right to see what it was. What he saw was the most bizarre scene he had ever experienced. 

The hills on the edge of the playground were wriggling, as though they were constructed of gelatin. The remains of the playground equipment had been twisted, torn, crushed, and mangled almost beyond recognition; there was a tight knot of metal bars that was once a jungle gym, and the slide had become a U-shaped tube. The trees all around the park were being sucked into the ground, as though a hungry subterranean beast were slurping them down. Lightning flashed between the sparse clouds in the sky. 

Signas took all this in, trying to force his CPU to accept the unbelievable sights. Then, there was an incredibly brilliant white light, and the roaring of the earthquake became all-consuming, and the last thing Signas was aware of was the sound of the General's enormous body crashing to the ground with a terrible boom.... 

53XX.... 

Yuna huddled next to the dying Carbon woman, trying her best to protect her from the sudden, unexpected earthquake and the accompanying windstorm. Where in the world could Gaatz be? Surely it wasn't this long to the next island! 

[Perhaps the sudden windstorm blew him off course,] the Mother unit thought. [If that's the case, then I hope he can find his way back. I never should have sent him off like that! I should have taken the Carbon on board, so we could all go together!] But worrying about past mistakes is unproductive, so Yuna tried to concentrate on other things. 

Meanwhile, the shaking worsened to the point where the earth began to split apart, snow turning to steam as hot air blew up from beneath. Yuna began to panic, clutching the Carbon woman closer, and scanning the sea for her truant Servitor unit. 

[He'll come back,] she assured herself. [He's made and programmed specifically to protect me, so he won't let anything happen.] 

Fire arced and spat from the freshly-made crevices. Vertical shafts of stone thrust themselves out of the sea like surrealistic jack-in-the-boxes. Just when she was about to give up all hope, Yuna caught a glimpse of silver on the horizon. Gaatz had come back! And not a moment too soon! 

The Mother unit watched as her servant wove his way around the stone shafts and the bolts of lightning that had begun to dance between the clouds and the sea. He was almost close enough to call out to, when a new disaster struck. 

As Yuna watched, a large stone pillar sprung up from the sea directly in front of Gaatz. He had no time to react. To his mistress's horror, the Servitor plowed straight into the stone, wings spasming from the impact, then fell back limply to plunge into the sea with a loud splash. Under other circumstances, the incident might have been humorous, but in this case, Yuna had lost her only mode of transportation...and the human woman had lost her life. 

The air crackled ominously. Yuna glanced upward in time to see a bolt of lightning leap down from the clouds toward her, but, like Gaatz, she had no time to get away. No sooner had Terra's Mother unit leapt up to run away, then the lightning struck her back, bathing her body in agonizing pain, and transforming her world into an endless white nothingness.... 


	3. Encounters and Explanations

The rumbling and trembling seemed to go on forever. Protoman felt as though he had been sucked into an endless void of eternal roaring and shaking, but all he could do was grit his teeth against the assault and wait it out, eyes squeezed shut in terror. 

Then, abruptly, the psuedo-earthquake came to an end. Silence replaced the deep roaring, and the ground beneath him was stable. Hesitantly, the android opened his eyes. With his head tucked down under his arms, the first thing he saw were bits of dark plastic between his knees. That was all that remained of his sunglasses, which had fallen off during the catastrophe. Protoman blinked a couple of times to clear his vision completely, then slowly lowered his arms, and looked around. Right away, his eyes were assaulted by searingly bright sunlight. Grimacing in pain, the robot reached over and pressed the recall button on his right arm. His distinctive red and white outfit-complete with visored helmet-appeared on his body with a white flash. His eyes thus protected, Protoman tried once again to look around, successfully this time. But he did not like what he saw. 

He was no longer at the Tokyo mall. He wasn't even indoors. Rather, he was outside in the middle of a great, flat plain. But instead of grass or shrubbery, the entire ground as far as Protoman could see was coated with an off-white, dusty shell of concrete. There were no hills, or even bumps in the surface. There were no plants, animals, insects, or any other kind of life, robotic or otherwise. There wasn't even so much as a crack in the pavement. It was as though the entire world had fossilized. 

[Dear God!] Protoman thought miserably. [Is this the future? Don't tell me this is what lies ahead of us! But that's not as important right now as to how to get back to my own time!] 

His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden concentration of heat at the small of his back, accompanied by a gruff-sounding voice. 

"Don't move!" the British-accented voice commanded. "I have a weapon aimed directly at you, so it would be foolish to try to attack or escape! Now, I have a few questions to ask, and you're going to answer them to the best of your ability. Understand?" 

"Clearly," Protoman replied. 

"Now then," the stranger continued. "Who are you? What is this place? What has happened?" 

"My name is Protoman, I don't know, and I have no idea." the red robot told him. 

A brief pause. 

"Then you have nothing to do with this...phenomenon?" the stranger asked. 

"I'm just as much in the dark as you are!" Protoman assured him. 

Another pause, longer this time, as the stranger considered this. 

"Very well," he said at last. "I am convinced that you are innocent, Protoman. You are free to go." 

Not without some relief, the small robot rose to his feet and turned to get a good look at his would-be captor. 

The stranger was about three feet taller than Protoman, putting him at about seven feet tall, and, judging from his uniform, he was a member of the militia. Dark eyes glowered from beneath the military cap, and his stern expression contrasted his youthful face. Multiple decorations studded his uniform, including a set of bars that identified his rank as colonel. His right hand clutched a beam saber, apparently the weapon he had been using to hold Protoman hostage. Upon closer inspection, however, the short android could see that his companion was robotic, like himself. 

"Who are you?" Protoman asked. 

"I'm the Colonel of the Repliforce," came the reply. "And that is all you need to know for now!" 

"Rep-Repliforce?" the red robot asked. "What's Repliforce?" 

"The Repliforce is a specialized military unit, built and programmed to counter the Mavericks." Colonel explained. 

"The whats?" 

"MAV-ER-ICKS!" 

"What are Mavericks?" Protoman asked. Colonel was nearly knocked over by the question. Where had this individual been the past few years?! 

"You know! The Mavericks!" the Repliforce officer shouted impatiently. "Those aberrant Reploids who are trying to wipe out the humans!" 

"Ok then, what are Reploids?" 

For a moment, Colonel could only sputter in disbelief at what he was hearing, before he was able to get his next comment out. 

"What do you mean, 'What are Reploids'? What did you think we are?!" 

"I don't know about you, but I think I'm a robot!" Protoman shot back. "And I'm pretty sure I'd be correct!" At that moment, a sudden realization struck him. 

[Protoman, you idiot!] he scolded himself. [Can't you tell? He's from the future!] Out loud he asked, "Say, um, this is going to sound weird, but do you know what year it is?" 

Colonel rolled his eyes in disgust, and started to answer, "21...", but Protoman interrupted. 

"I thought so!" the visored robot declared. "Colonel, don't think I've been withholding information on purpose, but I think I know what's going on!" 

"I'm all ears," the Repliforce officer said dryly. Protoman went on to explain what he had seen at Skull Castle, up until the strange earthquake and brilliant explosion. 

"In that case," Colonel mumbled after he was finished, "what timeline is this? Because this certainly isn't my world! Perhaps it is the distant future timeline." 

"No, I'm pretty sure it isn't," Protoman mumbled. "I just did an external sensor scan of our surroundings, and there's major distortion of all EM fields, at every level. Everything's fluctuating like crazy, and the readings aren't consistent at all! If this is any time in the future, then the EM fields would be consistent with our own timelines, or at least stable. Such is not the case." 

Colonel did a scan of his own, and confirmed his companion's finding. 

"Given what I saw at Skull Castle, and what I'm picking up here," Protoman went on, "I think I have an idea of what happened. I don't think we're in any one of the timelines. Rather, I think we're in all three at once, and not any of them." 

"Please explain," the Reploid asked, already confused. 

"Well," the other said, "Wily said the machine worked by transporting things from our universe to a parallel dimension in which it's already the future, or still the past, or whatever-oh, maybe I just better show you. It's really hard to explain." With this, he knelt down, and began to draw in the thin, gray dust with his finger. 

"See, these three lines represent the three timelines Wily and Bass picked out," he explained, illustrating his words as he talked. "The machine works by using the crystal-thing to make connections between two or more worlds," he scraped a break into each line, and drew tiny stubs intersecting the middle line with the ones to either side, in different locations along it. "But, between the imputting of incorrect data and the overload, something went wrong. Instead of simply shutting down as it would have, the time machine went ahead and tried to take the entire world into both other timelines as well, which it was not meant to do. As a result, the three universes were essentially ripped apart, scrambled up, and thrown back together. Unfortunately, there are no, for lack of a better term, laws for such a procedure. Therefore, everything-and I do mean everything, every lifeform, rock formation, bit of radiation, and so forth-was put together completely at random." Protoman illustrated this part by erasing the lines completely and replacing them with erratic squiggles. 

Now, if my memory of neo-astronomy serves me correctly," he continued, "the universe can only hold so much mass before collapsing in on itself. Thanks to the safeties that WERE installed, the machine eliminated that problem by annhiliating two-thirds of each timeline. It's like this: say you have three jigsaw puzzles, one thousand pieces each. You dump all three out of their boxes, mix them all together as thoroughly as possible, then pick out one thousand pieces at random, and discard the remaining two thousand. You then try and put the selected pieces together as best you can. Needless to say, they don't go together very well, and the resulting picture is completely alien, and not at all what any of the original three looked like. Did you get all that?" 

"Yes," Colonel replied. "But I do have one question: why were we unaffected?" 

"That, I don't know." Protoman admitted, then brightened. 

"Wait...I think I have an idea," he declared. "What were the coordinates of your position when this happened?" 

Colonel told him, and Protoman actually smiled. 

"Those are my exact coordinates too!" he exclaimed. "That means that there was a "shadow" in the machine's range, one for each timeline, which was unaffected." 

"Then, that means...!" Colonel smiled as well, as this new realization dawned. 

"...that there's someone else out there, who's also unaffected!" Protoman finished for him. He jumped up. "C'mon! Let's go find him!" He started to walk off. 

"Why?" the Reploid asked. "Aside from giving us a goal to strive for, what good will it do? Shouldn't we worry about getting our respective worlds back in order?" 

"Of course!" Protoman replied. "But I figured that if this individual is thousands of years ahead of us, then maybe their people have more advanced scientific knowledge than we do. If that's the case, then with his imput, we'll have a better chance of coming up with a way to get out of this mess!" 

"Not the best strategy I've heard," the Colonel mused, "but considering the circumstances, I suppose it's the best we can do for now." 

"Er...where to?" his new ally asked. Colonel glanced around, and noticed a distant cluster of skyscrapers on the far horizon. A city? 

"That way," he said, pointing at the distant buildings. 

"Why that way?" Protoman asked. 

"It's as good a direction as any," Colonel told him. "Better, in fact, because with something concrete to focus upon, it will be more difficult to get lost." 

"Good reasoning," the red robot murmured. "Well, let's go...you know, far be it for me to use a cliche, but when dealing with a bizarre, new universe made up of the scraps of existing ones, I'm afraid one particular cliche comes to mind." 

"I know," the Repliforce officer replid, smiling a little. 

"Expect the unexpected!" 


	4. A New Ally

fragments4.html The pair walked for hours across the desert of concrete without seeing anybody. Along the way, they talked about their respective worlds, people they knew, and what they had been doing up until the tri-universal collision. After a while, however, topics ran dry, and the city seemed only barely closer than it was. 

"I don't know about you," Protoman lamented, "but I'm getting really sick of seeing concrete everywhere. What's up with that, anyway?" 

"In that case," the Colonel of the Repliforce told him, "keep your eyes directed ahead of us at the buildings. It often helps to keep your goals in sight." 

"Yeah, well...what's that?" 

Ahead of them was what appeared to be a human figure. Upon closer inspection, it turned to be just that: a human girl of fourteen or fifteen wearing a white shirt with a bright red design of some sort was skipping toward them, waving a stout stick like a baton. 

"Who's that?" the Colonel asked. 

"Who cares?" was the reply. "It's someone other than us! C'mon! Let's go talk to her!" 

With this, the two ran up to the girl, who slowed down to approach them. 

"Hey!" she called. "I've got a question for you! Where's the firehouse?" 

Both robots stopped, trying to comprehend the nonsense the strange girl was saying. 

"What's she talking about?" Protoman asked. Colonel only shrugged. The young lady stopped a foot or so from them. 

"I just want to know where the firehouse is!" she demanded. "They've got some fair or something going on there, and I want to see it!" By this point, it was clear that she was insane, and the robots decided to humor her. 

"I'm sorry miss, but I really don't...ugghhh!!" Protoman's answer was interrupted where he recoiled in horror at a terrible realization, and heard Colonel's corresponding shudder of revulsion when he saw it too. 

What the pair had taken for a red design was actually the girl's insides, hanging out of her abdominal wall. Her heart throbbed with exertion, while the accompanying lungs, stomach, and intestines, pulsed and throbbed with wet gurgling noises. Blood and fluids dripped to the hard ground. Strangely enough, the young woman seemed oblivious to the fact that she was inside out. She simply continued to watch them, smiling, her eyes shining with madness. 

[How on Earth can she survive like this for so long?!] Protoman wondered. [Because she sure isn't going to survive much longer.] Sure enough, the girl's bared innards were shriveled, the dry air stealing their vitality away. He estimated that she had a few more hours to live at the most. 

"Madam, I'm afraid we do not know where this firehouse is," the Colonel was saying. "We apologize. And...I hope you will forgive me for what I am about to do..." 

Before Protoman could stop him, the Repliforce colonel drew out his Beam Saber, and, in one swift movement, beheaded the monstrosity before them. For a moment, she stood motionless, eyes glazing over, face blank with surprise, then her head tumbled from her shoulders with a wet plop, her ruined body following it seconds later. 

Protoman was so stunned by the swift brutality of the act, that he could only stand there and watch, while the Colonel saluted the dead girl, muttering, "May your soul rest in peace, my dear." 

"Wh...why did you do that?!" the red robot demanded. "That poor girl! How could you be so callous?" 

"She was clearly suffering, from both her...physical condition, as well as insanity. The only humane thing to do was to put the poor creature out of her misery," the Colonel replied, resheathing his saber. 

"That 'poor creature' was a human being, Colonel! We could have saved her! We could have gotten her to the hospital when we restored everything and done something to help her!" 

"And just how long do you think it would have been until we could do that, Protoman?" the Colonel snapped. "Days? Weeks? She only had hours to live, and you know it! I merely sped things up and spared her the pain!" 

Protoman tried to come up with a reply, but anger and frustration clogged his throat, blocking any words. He settled for turning and continuing toward the distant city. Colonel followed silently. 

"Wonder what caused her to go crazy like that?" the shorter robot wondered. 

"If your innards were discovered to be hanging outside of your body, and yet you were still alive, you would probably have a similar reaction." the Colonel told him. "Then again, the EM distortions might have something to do with it. Human and mechanical brains alike operate with electrical activity, so the distortions could very well wreak havoc on their mental processes." 

"If that's the case," Protoman replied, "then everyone else out there's nuts also. We're the only sane people on the face of the planet." He shuddered. "Now that's a scary thought!" 

"I concur," his companion mumbled. 

A few miles later, the monotonous scenery changed; a brick wall about seven feet high or so sprung up to their left, and Protoman noticed the faint outline of a sidewalk a few inches to the right. A long, dark lake or river appeared in the distance, heat waves dancing across its surface. 

[At least it isn't unbroken concrete,] the visored robot thought ruefully. Glancing forward, however, he noticed a dark shape in front of them to the right. At first, he could not identify the strange object due to the brilliance of the sun, but after a few moments, he recognized it to be a human figure. 

"Hey, who's that?" Protoman asked. The Colonel turned his head slightly to see where his companion was pointing. 

"I have no idea," the Repliforce commander replied. "But if he is anything like that girl we encountered a few hours ago, then we should be cautious." 

"Yeah, maybe," Protoman agreed. "But I still think we should at least make sure he's all right." He quickened his pace and jogged over to where the figure was lying, the Colonel close behind. 

The unfortunate individual was a young man in what seemed to be his early twenties. He was tall and thin, with dark tan skin, and short, pale green hair. His ears came to points, but was even stranger was the circular red lens in his forehead. The man appeared to be either asleep or unconscious; his rhythmic breathing ruled out death. 

"What happened to this guy?" Protoman mused. "I don't see any injuries." 

"According to the readings I'm getting, he's a robot like us," the Colonel explained. "But his configuration matches nothing I've seen before. In fact, I believe we could be looking at someone from the 5000 date you mentioned earlier." 

"That so? Neat!" Protoman knelt and shook the unconscious robot's shoulder gently. "Hey pal, you ok?" 

"Careful!" his friend warned. "As I said, he could be insane, and possibly dangerous!" 

With a low moan, the stranger awoke, opening eyes that had irises as scarlet as the lens on his forehead. "Where...?" he started to ask, then jumped up. 

"MISTRESS YUNA!" the strange robot screeched hysterically, looking around wildly. "MISTRESS YUNA! MISTRESS YUNA!" 

"Whoa! Whoa! It's ok!" Protoman tried to soothe him. "You're among friends." 

"Where's Mistress Yuna?" the stranger demanded. "It is imperative that this unit finds her immediately!" 

"You see?" the Colonel interrupted. "I told you he was mad!" 

"Not necessarily," Protoman shot back. "He's probably just confused." 

"Excuse me," the stranger interjected. "Have either of you seen Mistress Yuna? She's an android like myself, but she resembles a young woman with green hair in pigtails and wearing a dark brown dress. She also has red eyes and dark skin like mine." 

"We have met no one matching that description," the Colonel told him. "Our apologies." 

The robot hung his head, dejectedly. 

"This unit needs to find her. As her Servitor, her safety is this unit's top priority," he said glumly. 

"What's your name?" Protoman asked. 

"This unit's designation is Gaatz," the other replied, then his expression went from worried to confused as he took in his surroundings. "Who are you? And...what is this place?" 

Protoman and Colonel introduced themselves, and explained all that had happened. 

"So we were wondering if you would help us," Protoman concluded. 

Gaatz took no time at all in coming to a decision. 

"Absolutely!" he said. "Anything if it will help me save Mistress Yuna." 

"Then it's settled!" Colonel exclaimed, then turned toward the city once more. "Let's go, then!" 

With that, the trio was off, with Colonel leading the way, and Protoman lagging behind a bit. The latter was mumbling very softly to himself, and the other two wondered aloud about that. 

"Oh, I was just saying how our predicament is a lot like the one in those old children's books about the Land of Oz." 

Colonel and Gaatz stared at him blankly. 

"What?!" Protoman demanded defensively. "Don't either of you have books where you come from?" 

"I understood the reference," Colonel told him. "And now that you mention it, it is an incredible coincidence. Therefore, I shall dub the city we're headed toward 'Emerald City', for lack of a better title." 

With that, they picked up the pace and headed toward the cluster of dingy gray skyscrapers in the distance that they called "Emerald City." 


	5. Emerald City

Protoman, Gatz, and the Colonel had been hiking for the better part of the afternoon, when the latter noticed something large and dark in the distance heading toward them at an eerily determined speed. He stopped, and pointed it out to his companions, who stopped as well to try and make out what it was. When it got close enough to be seen clearly, it was quite obvious that the thing was dangerous.  
  
Loping up to the three robots was a ten-foot-tall mechanical doglike creature, with large, blunt jaws, long legs, and a ridged back. It ran with an animal-like grace, the sunlight glinting off a circular lens set behind the gaping jaws. Protruding from its back, sides, belly, and head were small, squat things with tubelike legs and a red lens on each octagonal head like the one in the larger creature's mouth. Some of the littler robots were nothing more than heads or bumps on the dog-thing's body; others were fully-formed, and seemed about to snap off. Their little tube-legs wiggled, as though they wanted to take off on their own.  
  
"What in the world is *that*?" Protoman asked incredulously. He readied his shield and arm cannon, in case there was a battle.  
  
"The large quadruped is called a 'Karamuna Bash'", Gatz explained. "And those smaller units attached to it are called Zakobons."  
  
"These are beings from your world," Colonel guessed.  
  
"Yes, but this unit has never seen such a thing as Zakobons actually growing out of a Karamuna Bash's body" the Servitor replied.  
  
The Repliforce officer was about to ask Gatz what weaponry the Karamuna might have, when the monster answered for him, by opening its great jaws and spewing forth a wave of fire. Colonel jumped the flare where it was thinnest, and Protoman rolled out of the way, firing at the beast. Gatz stood a ways away, so the flames missed him.  
  
"If you've got anything that can help us," the red robot muttered as he backed up to where the Servitor was, "now's the time to use it."  
  
"Er, Protoman?" Gatz stammered. "Your cape..."  
  
Protoman was suddenly aware of the sensation of heat at his back, and the smell of burning cloth. He glanced over his shoulder, and, to his horror, saw that the ends of his cape were on fire.  
  
"Oh sh...!!" He didn't bother to finish. Protoman ripped the garment from his neck, flung it to the ground, stamped the flames out as quickly as he could, and managed to save the cape with no more damage than a thin, black, charred line along the edge.  
  
Meanwhile, Colonel had been ducking and dodging the Karamunabon's jaws, and slashing at it whenever he could. At one point, the beast reared back for the final blow, and Colonel brought his saber up and aimed it directly at its throat. But he never got the chance to try whatever plan he had. A super-charged shot from Protoman's cannon blasted through the air, and struck the Karamunabon's head. There was a small explosion as the creature's metal skull was blown apart, the lower mandible torn loose. Its legs crumpled weakly, and it fell onto Colonel's upraised saber. The deadly blade sunk through metal and circuits to the power generator beneath, slicing it apart. The Reploid then got to his feet, and pulled his weapon free. The Karamuna was dead, but the Zakobons attached to it still lived; their little legs kicked helplessly as they sought freedom from their encasement, but there was nothing to be done.  
  
"Bravo!" a voice called from atop a slanted building several feet away. "Well done!"  
  
The three companions looked up to where the voice was coming from, and saw a Reploid in red armor leaping down from his perch towards them, his long blonde hair flying out behind him like a golden flag.  
  
"Zero?" Colonel asked, squinting in bewilderment. His fist clutching the beam saber started to loosen...then tightened up again at the memory of the demented human girl. Still, it was unsettling to think that his close friend had been reduced to....  
  
"You know this guy?" Protoman asked the Repliforce commander.  
  
"Yes," came the reply. "He and I are old friends. His name is Zero. He and my younger sister, Iris, have a special fondness for each other, if you catch my meaning." Colonel's cybernetic heart grew heavy with sadness at the thought of his beloved sister trapped in this nightmare, and found himself hoping that she had been one of the many who had been killed when the three universes merged haphazardly.  
  
"You guys going to sit there and ignore me all day?" Zero asked irritably.  
  
"Sorry," Colonel apologized, then pointed to his companions, introducing each in turn. "These are some...traveling companions I've met recently. This fellow here is Protoman, and the other is Gatz." The other two murmured their salutations.  
  
"Nice meeting you all," Zero replied, smiling that empty grin of the insane. "We're all pleased to meet you." He bowed, and Protoman felt a wave of sickening horror when he saw four robotic dog's legs growing out of the scarlet Reploid's back. He wasn't the only one who noticed; Gatz winced and averted his eyes, while Colonel actually turned several degrees of pale and whispered a sickened oath under his breath.  
  
"P...Pleasure's all...all ours," the visored robot stammered, managing a grin, then hesitated. "Wait a minute. Who's 'we'?"  
  
"Ok boys!" the monstrosity called to the wall nearby. At his call, a vast army of monsters emerged from behind it.   
  
The sight that greeted the travellers could not possibly be more bizarre. Most of the encroaching horde was humanoid to a degree, but quite a few were purely animaloid, and still others looked entirely robotic. The sheer variety defied description. They came in hundreds of colors, shapes, sizes, and even degree of mutation. One had the body of a robotic snake, yet sported the flesh-and-blood head of a human. Another was some kind of bipedal animaloid with a long snout, but it was hard to tell exactly what it was, because it was headless from the lower jaw up, and had no arms. Yet another creature appeared to be an android body sawed in half lengthwise, dragging intestines behind it. Still another humanoid had four heads upon its shoulders.  
  
The Zero-creature let out a war whoop, and danced out of the way. At the signal, the nightmare pack attacked. They all charged forward, demented sadism glinting in their eyes. Several fired a variety of plasma shots from small spheres to laser beams. Some swung swords, clubs, or knives. Others lashed out with claws or fangs. Still others charged with horns lowered. A few flicked long tails like whips. All shrieked with rage, voices merging into a single cry of unholy fury. Their victims, however, were not completely off guard.   
  
Protoman had formed one hand into a cannon, and fired at anything that crossed his field of vision, mostly with rapidfire shots, but tried to charge up a supershot whenever he had a few spare seconds. He held up his shield with the other hand, blocking as many of the blows as he could. The Colonel fought with more deliberation, calculating his foe's movements before taking them down with a stroke or two of his lightsaber.   
  
"Just how many of these guys are there, anyway?" the smaller robot grumbled as he shot down what felt like the hundred-thousandth enemy. He had already taken several blows to the chest and face. Torn syntheflesh revealed a glinting line of metal and broken circuitry along his jaw. The Colonel, who looked only slightly better, did not reply. Protoman assumed it was because the other robot was too preoccupied with the fight, and said nothing more.  
  
Colonel, meanwhile, had indeed been fighting with everything he had, but his silence was not caused by preoccupation. It was from horrified awe. A few feet away, Gatz had retreated a ways from the fray, an action the Repliforce commander deemed an act of cowardice. Now, to Colonel's utter disbelief, the Servitor had begun to *change*.   
  
"Oh God!" Colonel whispered when he realized what was happening.   
  
"What?" Protoman asked curiously. "What's wrong? Where's..." He caught sight of Gatz, and gasped. "Oh my....!"  
  
Gatz was rapidly growing, changing into this huge, robotic, dragon-bird the size of a small airplane. Huge spikes lanced from its back, belly, and long wings that used to be arms. A massive pair of mandibles were formed from the Servitor's head and neck. Plasma cannons grew out of his chest. A tapering tail a good deal longer than the rest of his huge body spurted from the base of his spine. Skin, hair, and clothing were replaced by thick, silver-white body armor. The creature's eyes were crimson pools near the end of its muzzle. The only similarity between the youthful humanoid and the beast he had become was the scarlet lens in the middle of its forehead, which gleamed in the dimming twilight.  
  
Within seconds of the transformation's completion, Gatz fired a series of purple orbs at the attacking horde, incinerating quite a few. The entire process had taken only a few seconds, but it was nonetheless a long enough distraction for the savage pack to get an upperhand. Protoman and Colonel got over their amazement immediately, and resumed the counterattack, this time with Gatz adding his own firepower.  
  
Several hours and countless hits later, the Colonel ordered a retreat and headed for the dusty ruins of an old wall. He jumped behind it, Protoman following a few seconds behind, firing potshots at a few attackers that followed. Gatz joined them a minute later, reverting to humanoid form once more and dropping to his knees to make himself a smaller target. The minute the Servitor was within arm's reach, Protoman grabbed him savagely by the collar, and hissed in his face.  
  
"Any reason why you couldn't change into that dragon-thing and help us with that Karamuna-Zakobon-creature earlier?" the red robot snarled.  
  
"This unit presumed that the Colonel and yourself were able to destroy it on your own!" came the stammered reply. Protoman started to reply, then realized that Gatz was right; the two of them had been able to handle the beast on their own.  
  
"Well, next time, we'd like if you'd help us out right away, alright?"  
  
"Understood."  
  
"Look out!" Colonel interrupted. His companions glanced up, and saw another wave of attackers rushing towards them, intent on killing. There were too many to fight.  
  
"To the city!" Protoman yelled, and dodged to the side, towards the distant buildings. Colonel and Gatz followed him, the former occasionally reaching behind and swiping his saber at anything that got too close.  
  
The trio quickly closed the distance between the city and themselves, the demented pack at their heels. The buildings grew taller and taller as they approached, and the shimmering blacktop of roads began to appear.  
  
[Almost there....!] Protoman thought desperately. The rumble of the stampeding monsters behind him was despairingly close. The breeze of a claw-laden hand chilled his back. The clank of jaws snapping shut behind him were a little bit too close.   
  
By now, they were close enough to make out tiny windows in the walls of Emerald City's buildings and the tall, slender shapes of lampposts. Gatz felt a warm breeze of hope. Almost there....  
  
The shadows of the buildings inched closer, then the trio of androids was actually running among the gray derelicts. They made it! Now, all that was left was to find a suitable place to hide, and....  
  
The horrifying sight before him nearly stopped Protoman dead in his tracks, despite the approaching horde of monstrosities. Gatz and the Colonel skidded to a near-halt a little bit behind him, murmuring their disbelief that, after all this time and effort to get to the city, there had been no city to get to! What they thought was a large metropolis was in reality no more than a few derelict buildings, a single double-lane road, complete with sidewalks, lampposts, and fire hydrants. Behind the buildings was the same concrete emptiness that was this world; a few buildings even had missing walls in back. It was as though a cosmic knife had sliced off this tiny sliver of city and placed it nowhere.  
  
The realization took only less than a second to sink in, but felt like forever.  
  
"There...is no Emerald City," Colonel breathed, feeling sheer hopelessness clutch at his insides.  
  
The war cries of the approaching demon horde and Gatz's urgent cry-"Hurry! We must find a place of refuge!"-brought the distraught pair out of their reverie, and into reality, or what now passed as reality. Quickly, the three adventurers looked this way and that, searching among the collapsed ruins and freestanding walls for a suitable shelter, but found none. The bloodthirsty pack closed in, and several plasma shots flew overhead.  
  
"Over there!" Colonel yelled, having spotted a three-story cinderblock building only a yard or so away. The fading sunlight reflecting off of the large picture windows in front prevented them from seeing the interior, much less what the building was for. Not that it mattered, of course. The trio of robots resumed their flight, only this time in the direction of the building. The beasts behind them, realizing their intent, redoubled their speed.   
  
[Almost there,] Gatz thought, concentrating his remaining energy on getting to the approaching shelter. [Just a few more seconds, and we'll be safe!] He could hear foot(paw? hoof?)steps gaining on him just a little too fast, and did his best to ignore them. The building was now only a few feet away. Warm breath washed down the Servitor's back, and he pushed his refractor motor for all it could offer. The doors were almost in reach....  
  
Protoman reached the cinderblock haven first. He reached for the handle...a gun barrel behind him powered up with a soft whrrr...his arms were raised to his face to protect it...the sound of a trigger clicking as it was pulled...he lunged forward for all he was worth...a green plasma beam lit up the glass of the door...the glass shattered into a thousand gleaming fragments...the red robot ducked and rolled inside...and jumped to the side, allowing the beam to zip past his head and into the far interior wall. Only then did the bioroid take a breath. Without waiting another second, he grabbed the nearest heavy object-a large desk like that of a schoolteacher's-and shoved it in front of the shattered door.  
  
"Everyone..." he gasped, and started again, "everyone make it in in one piece?" Two soft but very welcome voices murmured confirmations of their presence, and relative lack of harm. With all present and accounted for, Protoman went ahead and got up, gazing around the hazy interior of the building.  
  
There were shelves everywhere, all empty. A large, empty desk indicated as the RECEPTION by the white, black-lettered sign above it crouched near the doors the trio had just run through. Several smaller desks-REFERENCE, CHILDREN'S, and several others-huddled here and there. The lack of light obscured some of the signs farther off, but Protoman felt sure that they would say such things as FICTION, NONFICTION, and various indicative letter and number plaques. Floor-to-ceiling columns with pedastals around their sides at varying lengths stood silently every few yards apart. On each pedestal, several computers perched like squat birds.  
  
"Hm, a library with no books," the Colonel mused. "How peculiar. But everything in this jigsaw world is peculiar." He strode over to a series of light switches and flipped them experimentally. No one was surprised when nothing happened; the crazy EM fields of this shattered world prevented many electronics from working properly, and most were unable to operate at all, as was the case here.  
  
"So now what?" Protoman asked idly, wandering down one of the empty corridors, while Gatz sat down at the nearest reading table. As he was pondering a suitable answer to Protoman's question, a small, dark shape caught the Servitor's eye. When he picked it up, it turned out to be the only book in sight, possibly in the entire library.  
  
"I am out of ideas," Colonel grumbled, in answer to Protoman's question. He leaned against the reception desk, examining the handle of his beam sabre. "At the moment, there doesn't seem to be any options," he continued.  
  
Gatz, meanwhile, flipped through the pages of the solitary book, finding nothing but blank pages. Well, almost nothing. One page out of what must have been several hundred had writing on it: a single verse from a poem with which the Servitor was unfamiliar:  
  
Clad in armor of Heaven's blue And armed with the power of a heart that's true The Angel of Justice comes in the name of peace To vanquish all the world's miseries  
  
Gatz reread the verse several times and, after deciding once and for all that he was unable to understand it, and that whoever wrote it was in dire need of more practice, he put the book back down.  
  
"What about you, Gatz?" Protoman asked, startling him.   
  
"Beg pardon?"   
  
"Any ideas?" the shorter robot asked.  
  
Gatz sighed.  
  
"This unit is as stymied as you are," he murmured.  
  
"What are you looking at?" the Colonel asked.  
  
"A book of poetry," Gatz replied. "Or, at least, that was what it once was. There is very little left."  
  
"Really?" Protoman was intrigued. "Let me see." Gatz obligingly offered the book to his companions, for them to read. Of course, neither of them understood it either.  
  
"It is strange, though," the Colonel mused after reading it, "that not only is this the only book in the entire library, but that it also contains this one item. There is something...odd about that."  
  
"Colonel, I thought we went through this!" Protoman grumbled irritably, "Everything in our respective universes has been reduced to utter chaos. Which part of 'total randomness' is giving you the most difficulty?"  
  
"I am aware of that, Protoman," the Repliforce commander replied, just as angry, "What I'm saying is that this is a bit too...too convenient, I guess is the word I'm looking for. This verse is not only the entire content of the book, but the of the entire library, perhaps of all the literature left in the world, and we happened to find it!"  
  
"You're about to suggest that this thing was planted!" Protoman concluded. Even with the visor that covered half his face, the red robot's incredulous expression was unmistakable.  
  
"No!" Colonel insisted, then hesitated. "Well, maybe. I don't know!"  
  
They were all silent for a moment. Protoman picked up the book, positioned it on his lap, and read the verse again.  
  
"Blue armor, good heart, fights in the name of peace...sounds like my little brother." He smiled fondly at the memory of his beloved sibling, then sighed as a thin stab of meloncholy pierced his heart at the thought of his brother-and the rest of his family, for that matter-being annhiliated by this awful disaster. Suddenly, the entire situation seemed to crash down on him in a suffocating blanket of despair. It took Protoman a good three minutes to regain his composure.  
  
"You mentioned him earlier," Colonel muttered.  
  
"Wha...who?" Protoman stammered, startled out of his thoughts.  
  
"Your brother," the tall Reploid reminded him. "What was his name, anyway?"   
  
"Didn't I tell you?" the smaller robot asked.   
  
"No. You just said something about how he tries to save the world from this madman, Wily, every now and then."  
  
"Oh," Protoman grew solemn again. "His name's MegaMan. See, he used to be a household robot for our creator's lab, but then Dr. Wily went on a rampage and started reprogramming industrial robots for use in his world domination schemes. I wasn't around, of course...what's wrong?" He had noticed Colonel's shocked expression.  
  
"What...what did you say his name was?" the Repliforce officer asked. Gatz was leaning closer to the pair, intrigued.  
  
"I said his name was MegaMan. What's wrong with that?" Protoman replied testily.  
  
"Nothing," came the reply. "Absolutely nothing. Except that...remember earlier on, when I was telling you about X?"  
  
"The Maverick Hunter? Yeah, I remember."  
  
"Well, what I didn't tell you is that his full name, is MegaMan X."  
  
It took a while for this to sink in.  
  
"My God!" Protoman breathed. "Do you think...do you think they're the same person?"  
  
"I'm not sure," the Colonel returned. "But the poem does sound like him, right down to the blue armor. What about your brother?"  
  
"That's right. He wears blue armor too!"  
  
Both robots turned to their companion.  
  
"Gatz, is there anyone named MegaMan where you come from?" Protoman demanded.  
  
"Oh, certainly. Quite a few in fact." the Servitor told him. The caped robot felt his hopes sink just a bit.  
  
"Well, do any of them wear blue?" Colonel asked this time. "Or do any of them do something, I don't know, big for the good of the world or whatever?"  
  
"Now that you mention it, there is one who fits that description," Gatz mused. "His name is MegaMan Trigger, a Purifier unit whose program is to destroy any aberrant units who threaten the System that runs our world."  
  
"Sounds like an everyday policeman to me," Colonel snorted.  
  
"Well, did this Trigger person do anything unusual?" Protoman inquired.  
  
"This unit should say so!" the servant android exclaimed. "He attempted to destroy the System instead! Something about the reinitialization, and how he did not wish to carry it out."  
  
"Reinitialization?"  
  
"A long, complicated process that involves the eradication of carbons, and the restoration of the true humans. It is carried out after all humans have died."  
  
"What are carbons?" Colonel asked.  
  
"Artificially created humanoids, constructed from human DNA and meant to live on Terra."  
  
"Artificial humans?" Protoman straightened suddenly as it dawned on him. "You mean this reiniitialization kills off an entire race of sentient beings?! Oh God, Gatz, how could you possibly go along with such a thing?" He backed away from the other robot, disgusted.  
  
"It is not this unit's place to say," Gatz murmured. "It only does what Mistress Yuna asks of it. But if it is any comfort to you, Mistress Yuna has decided to follow Master Trigger's lead and rebel against the System, therefore, this unit is obliged to follow her."  
  
"This is beside the point!" the Colonel interrupted. "The point is, each of us is from a world where someone named 'MegaMan' has done something significant against wide-scale atrocities, and I believe that is one hell of a coincidence! If it is a coincidence at all."  
  
"So what are you saying?" Protoman asked.  
  
"I am saying that we...."  
  
Colonel got no further. A sudden splashing crash of shattering glass interrupted him. The three androids startled at the noise, and looked around to see monstrous beasts of all kinds pouring in from the shattered windows. Apparently the library had not been as secure as they had thought!  
  
"What do we do now?" Protoman demanded as he gunned down the first row of attackers. "Is there another way out?"  
  
"There is an emergency exit in the east outer wall," Gatz replied, "but it is blocked off!"  
  
"So what now?!" the shorter bot groaned. He could feel himself weakening from the blows he was taking. All the stress of the day as a whole had not helped.  
  
"Wait, I have an idea!" Colonel piped up. "Does either of you have a teleporter device?"  
  
"In my shield," Protoman replied. "But I don't think you should...!" He never bothered to finish. Colonel was already reaching over to grab the shield held in Protoman's hand. The Reploid ran his fingers along the back edge of the device, searching for the teleporter without even bothering to remove it from its user's arm.   
  
[Come on, come on!] Colonel thought to himself desperately. [Where is the damned thing? Wait!] His fingers brushed against a pad of buttons. He turned his head to where the third member of their party was fighting off the attackers as best he could.  
  
"Gatz!" Colonel called, "Grab hold of me!"   
  
Without hesitating another second, the Servitor ran over and grabbed the Colonel's upper arm, while the latter took hold of Protoman's shoulder with one hand, and activated the teleporter with the other. The three of them were instantly transformed into a blaze of scarlet light, which leapt through the ceiling of the building, and arced across the sky.  
  
***  
  
The teleportation beam crashed down a considerable distance away, and reshaped itself into Protoman, Colonel, and Gatz. They immediately seperated, and Protoman flung his shield over his shoulder and onto his back with the smoothness that comes with years of repetition. He glared hatefully at the Colonel.  
  
"That was a brilliant move back there," he growled sarcastically. "Just teleport us to some unknown place in an alien world! Real bright!" The Colonel was not moved in any way. He simply stood there calmly, gazing evenly at his shorter companion.  
  
"Considering that there was no way we could have fought back those...creatures or gotten to the exits," the Repliforce officer said evenly, "and the fact that we didn't know where we were even back there, I must ask you: What would you have done differently?"  
  
Protoman had no answer.  
  
"Excuse me, Protoman? Colonel?" Gatz's nervous voice asked from a few feet away. "Where are we?"  
  
For the first time, the other two robots got a good look at where they were--and what they saw was almost as incredible as when they had first been stranded.... 


	6. Where are we?

I suppose that here is as good a a place as any to explain the origins of this fic. This story is based on a dream I had a few years ago. All I remember now is something about several MegaMan characters running toward a squat gray building in an otherwise featureless landscape. Of course, the memory's faded quite a bit and I've had to ad lib quite a bit since then, but the basic concept is still there. The setting for this chapter and what Gatz sees out the window are also from a dream. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first thing Protoman noticed was that they were no longer outdoors. They were in a house, only it wasn't exactly a house, but that was the closest one could come to describing it. The trio stood in what seemed to be the central room of the building. They stood upon something like a stage or a platform, with four freestanding sides and a hardwood floor. A gap of several feet seperated the platform from the walls of the building. Not external walls, because several hallways lead from the visible walls onward, connected to the central platform by small, suspended bridges. Stairways led from each corner of the platform down to halls created by the gap between the platform and the other walls, leading to a hidden basement. The platform itself was furnished with a couch, a rocking chair, two easy chairs, and a throw rug in the center. "What is this place?" Gatz asked uncomfortably. He took some tentative steps to the edge of the platform. "Either the home of an extreme eccentric," Colonel replied. "Or the result of an architect of questionable skill." He frowned, sinking into deep thought. There was something familiar about this place, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Protoman, meanwhile, paced up and down the length of the platform, fuming. "So now what do we do?" he muttered. "We still have no idea where we are, where to go, or what to do, no way of solving this, whatever it is, and no one around sane enough to help us!" He tossed up his arms in a gesture of helplessness. "I'm lost! I just...can't figure out our next move!" "I would still like to know the significance of the passage we found in that book at the library," Colonel mused. Protoman rolled his eyes in disgust. "You're not still on about that, are you?" the shorter robot grumbled. "Personally, I don't think it has any meaning at all!" "Perhaps, perhaps not," the Reploid muttered. "But it is the only thing we have encountered so far that has come close to making any amount of sense." "Fine," Protoman replied. "But that still doesn't tell us what to do or where to go next." "That, I believe, is entirely up to us." Colonel said quietly. With that, the two robots fell silent, pondering their next move. Meanwhile, Gatz had decided to explore the building for lack of anything better to do. Crossing one of the suspended bridges, he found that the other end led to a very narrow hallway. The floor was hardwood like the platform in the main room, and the walls were completely hidden by bookshelves crammed full of hardcover books. The Servitor took one down and flipped through it, but its pages yielded only gibberish. He put the book back and continued on his way. At the other end of the hall was a bedroom; the single twin-size bed in the nearest corner prevented all doubt. Again the floor was hardwood, but in here it was adorned with thin rectangular rugs. There were inset shelves all along the walls that contained assorted bric-a-brac, a small closet in the wall next to the door, a chest of drawers at the far side of the room, and a curtained window next to the bureau. Gatz wandered over to the window to peek outside. To his amazement, there was no sign of the concrete that had been so prominent before. Instead, there was vast jungle of trees, vines, moss, and grass. The foliage of the trees was interwoven too tightly for even the tiniest ray of sunlight to get through, leaving the forest in green-hued shadows. The vegetation itself was so thick that it was impossible to see any more than a few yards out. There was not a single flower, rock, bare patch of earth, or even fruit on the trees to break the unending sea of green. Even the tree trunks and branches were completely encrusted with green mosses and algae. As always, there was no animal life, not even insects. There was, however, a strange structure erected in the relatively clear area next to the house. It was about ten feet high and consisted of two black metal tubes bent into an inverted U-shape, with the curves at the top connecting to each other. The ends of the tubes were attached to a solid black metal base that had been all but lost in the thick grass that carpeted the clearing. Vines and moss hung from the top. Gatz was so intrigued by the black metal thing, he didn't hear the others coming into the room. "There you are!" Protoman declared, startling the Servitor unit. "We've been looking all over for you, Gatz!" "This unit begs your pardon!" Gatz said, bowing slightly. "It was so intrigued by its new surroundings, it was unable to resist exploration." He noticed that his friend was trying to hide a smile. "Does something amuse you?" Protoman shook his head, still smiling. The Colonel, meanwhile, wandered over to the window to see what had held the Servitor's attention so raptly. "This is a little off the subject," the red robot said, "but why do you keep referring to yourself in the third person?" "Excuse me?" "Why do you keeping calling yourself 'this unit'?" Protoman continued. "Wouldn't it be quicker just to say 'I' instead? And you keeping saying you're an 'it' as well. Don't you know you're a male?" Gatz stared at him blankly. "Ah, forget I said anything," Protoman sighed. He went to join Colonel at the window. "What were you looking at, anyway?" His eyes widened behind his visor when he looked outside. "Wow," he mumbled. "Certainly is a change of scenery!" For the past few minutes, the Colonel had been staring at the black structure and wondering where he had seen it before. It looked so familiar.... "I know what that is!" Colonel half-whispered as realization dawned on him. Protoman and Gatz looked at him expectantly. "It's a sculpture from an art museum I visited once! We must be where the facility used to be." He turned and went back into the main room. His companions followed him. Protoman looked around the room and its bizarre layout. "This doesn't look like any art museum I've been in," he muttered. "No, but I recognize the general floor plan," Colonel continued. "My guess is that this is also the site of a residential area on one of the other universes, and perhaps something else in the third. We are most likely seeing three buildings merged together." "That's how Dr. Wily said the time machine worked," Protoman mused. "By merging universes....wait a minute!" A new and promising thought occured to him. "Remember back when I was explaining about the jigsaw puzzles being scrambled?" Colonel nodded, while Gatz merely looked confused. "I came to the conclusion that there's only so much space the universes can occupy," Protoman continued, "and the there would have to be some considerable compromises made in order to accomodate it. Now, Dr. Wily might not have much in the way of morals, but he's still pretty smart. I'm sure he would have worked out some kind of logical means of reconfiguring...." "Get to the point, Protoman!" Colonel snarled impatiently. "Alright, alright! The point is, this world we're in isn't as random as we thought it was," Protoman concluded. "It isn't?" Gatz ventured. "How so?" "Everything has changed, and quite a bit was added and removed," Protoman said. "But nothing was actually moved in terms of spatial relationships. Colonel and I were in the same place just after the event." "In the 'shadow' of the machine's effects," Colonel concluded. "But why was Gatz so much farther away? We had walked for over an hour before encountering him" "This unit had been returning to the island where Mistress Yuna was," the Servitor explained. "It had been sent off to seek help for a Carbon she had found in the snow." "Where was this, exactly?" Colonel asked. "On Forbidden Island," Gatz told him. "This unit was flying toward shore when it was struck by a large mass of stone that appeared suddenly in its path. This unit was unable to react quickly enough to avoid a collision." "Flying? Then you were in the form of that large white dragon?" Colonel asked. "Affirmative," Gatz confirmed. "But you were in humanoid form when we found you," Protoman joined in. "Is it possible for your kind to transform while unconscious?" "No, but this unit has no memory record of regaining consciousness prior to when it met you two." "It could have been minor damage to the memory core," Colonel said. "It is hard to be certain as I am unfamiliar with the technology of your era." "This is all fine and well," Protoman interrupted. "But the point is that everything's in the same place it was before! If it still exists at all, that is. At any rate, the coordinate data each of us has in our memory banks is still valid." "In other words, it is possible to navigate this world!" Colonel concluded. "And I know where we are!" "In that case, where do we go?" Gatz asked. "Well, by correlating the coordinates of both the mega-mall and Dr. Wily's fortress...," Protoman grew silent as his computer brain worked on the problem, then spoke up again. "This way!" Gatz and the Colonel followed him outside. 


End file.
